Friday, 22 July 2016

Suarez: Messi is 'by far' better than Ronaldo

The Uruguay international believes his Barcelona
team-mate is comfortably the best player on the planet and should pip
the Real Madrid superstar to the Ballon d'Or award

Luis Suarez does not believe Cristiano Ronaldo's trophy-winning
exploits with Real Madrid and Portugal should result in him taking the
Ballon d'Or off Lionel Messi.
Barcelona talisman Messi regained football's major individual honour
last year, leaving the career Ballon d'Or count against Ronaldo at 5-3
in his favour.
Messi scored 41 goals and provided 26 assists in all competitions as
Barca retained La Liga and the Copa del Rey last season, but Ronaldo
netted the winning penalty as Real pipped rivals Atletico Madrid to
Champions League glory, before helping Portugal to a surprise Euro 2016
triumph.
Those successes have established the former Manchester United forward
as a strong favourite for this 2016 award, and Barcelona star Neymar
even said last week that he expects Ronaldo to scoop the gong.
But Suarez is in no doubt that his team-mate Messi remains the pre-eminent performer in world football.
"It is true that [Ronaldo] won those trophies but for me there is no
question that Leo is the best player in the world," he said.
"Whether or not he wins that prize he is the best player by far. He has more of an effect on the game that anyone one else.
"He couldn't win a title [the Copa America] with Argentina but he has
won so many titles with Barcelona and I think that he deserves the
Ballon d'Or."
As Messi recuperates after missing a spot-kick in Argentina's Copa
America final defeat against Chile on penalties and Neymar prepares for
Brazil's Olympic campaign, Suarez is the only member of Barcelona's
famous front trio in pre-season training ahead of the new season.
Nevertheless, the ex-Liverpool favourite is unconcerned over
the disruption and is aiming high once more for the forthcoming season.
"I'm training with some other team-mates and guys from Barca B that I didn't know as well," he added.
"We are preparing ourselves physically and getting ready for the season.
"I talk to Luis Enrique about the normal things that we talk about in
pre-season, getting ready to try and achieve our objectives for this
season.

"At Barcelona we are going to try as always to make history and win as much as possible.